Field of the Art
The disclosure relates to the field of electronics networking, and more particularly to the field of wireless network service quality measurement and management.
Discussion of the State of the Art
All must recognize that the advent and later widespread use of computer networking has revolutionized the operation of virtually all business installations from smallest outlet to warehouse, factory and corporate headquarters. At first it was slow speed wired service that was somewhat constricting, difficult to set up and required the laying of possibly miles of sometimes very inconvenient wiring but speeds improved rapidly and most corporations have become fully dependent on networking and cloud access to function. More recently, the availability, better speed and increased reliability of wireless networking has once again begun large scale changes in corporate operations. Now one may have continuous network connectivity with all of the corporate resources and the cloud, but may move around the corporate landscape at will depending on the mobility of the device being used. Device mobility has greatly changed at the same time. While wireless networking is indeed a large step forward, it does not come without drawbacks as networks may become over-subscribed without much recognizable warning; one does not need to worry that there are enough ports on the switch to accommodate everyone, but the capacity constraint is still there. Also, wireless coverage is greatly affected by environmental factors, building infrastructure such as walls and beams, radio interference—either chronic, from other office equipment or items employees bring to work, or transient cloud cover, sun spots, humidity, etc. Providing coverage at peripheral areas of a building complex so that all employees have fast optimal service without “leaking” your network outside of the corporate campus to where it is a beacon for hacking is also an important consideration. There are many tests that may be run that probe an aspect of wireless network service delivery and quality, but knowing which ones to run, how often to run them, from where to run them, and how to interpret the results, are daunting factors. Budgeting such endeavors is also no small concern.
What is needed is a system and method that will comprehensively test and manage a company's wireless network equipment and coverage, retrieve data from all available equipment, coordinate third party elements of the test system, automatically run important tests without intervention, use end user devices for testing as well as testing equipment that is already or may easily be placed throughout the coverage map of the tested network, and that will transform and then display the data in such a way that all concerned with network health and function may understand and show to those in charge of the purse strings to resolve issues may easily comprehend, for example graphs and minimal service levels, possibly with remedy suggestions when something does go wrong.